The First Sparkling Wine (it’s not what you think)

Forget everything you have ever heard about Dom Perignon.

The idyllic cloister at the Abbey of Saint Hilaire, the real home of sparkling wine.

Dom Perignon did not invent sparkling wine. Unheralded Benedictine monks from the Languedoc region in Southwest France beat him to it! They created the first bubbly in 1531 at least 150 years before Champagne winemakers succeeded. Their ancestral method relied on an interrupted fermentation of the local late ripening Mauzac grape. Fermentation stopped with the onset of cool weather before yeast consumed all the sugar. The wine was bottled, but warmer temperatures in the Spring initiated fermentation again. The bubbles that are a byproduct were captured in the sealed bottles and fizzy wine was born.

Legend has it that Dom Perignon visited the Abbey of Sainte Hilaire en route to a pilgrimage at Santiago de Compostela. The monks taught him the sparkling wine method, much to their chagrin, when his winemaking star eclipsed theirs. Perhaps out of jealousy, they spread rumors that the Dom enjoyed more than wine during his visit, with references to carousing with loose women.

The miniscule Limoux region is also overshadowed by its Northern cousin’s production, creating 10 Million bottles to Champagne’s 300 million.

For wine insiders, Saint-Hilaire Blanquette de Limoux, an award winning sparkler made primarily from the indigenous Mauzac grape, is both delicious and a great value. Saluté!

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The Abbey is located near the beautiful and historic fortified town of Carcassonne in the Languedoc region of France.